From the gallery archive: Patrick Taylor

PATRICK TAYLOR operates Taylor Pottery in Highlands, North Carolina, where he produces functional stoneware and expressive forest creature jugs, his own interpretation of the Face Jug form. For the past several years, he has been studying the pottery heritage and ceramic artists of the Appalachian region. He incorporates both ceramic traditions and natural materials from the Southern Appalachians into his work, and he gathers much of his own clay from stream beds in the area.

Left: Razorback Hog with Snake, 2014

Taylor has been involved in studio pottery and sculpture for thirty years and has been a juried member of the former Georgia Designer Craftsman and the Georgia Mountain Crafts Associations. (He hails originally from south Georgia.) Prior to moving to North Carolina, Taylor was the founding Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Kennesaw State University. He retired from Kennesaw in 1999, after seventeen years of service. Taylor’s work is in numerous private and corporate collections including King and Spalding Law Firm of Atlanta, and he and his studio are cited in the Craft Trails Guidebook of Western North Carolina, published by Handmade in America. Taylor is also a magistrate judge in the 30th Judicial District of North Carolina. UPDATE: Retired from his magistrate post, Taylor now serves as the Mayor of Highlands, NC.